


Goodbye my friend

by nerdlife4eva



Series: A Miraculous Future [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Difficult Decisions, Goodbyes, Hopeful Ending, Love, Other, Tearjerker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-29 23:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10147034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdlife4eva/pseuds/nerdlife4eva
Summary: A chapter to show the goodbye that took place between Gabriel and Nooroo when the human informed his kwami of his decision to give up the fight.





	

Gabriel's head was swimming when he finally entered his hotel room. Alone, he sighed into the quiet, unstartled when the purple kwami entered his eye line. It had been a long time since he had seen Nooroo so relaxed, and the guilt of this simple fact strangled his heart. The normally stiff shoulders sank, revealing the struggle of the man that bore the weight of his decisions over the past five years.

"Master?" Nooroo spoke quietly, approaching him, leveling himself directly in front of Gabriel.

"Remember when it used to be friend?" Gabriel asked, shifting ever so slightly to lift a hand to the kwami. He let his fingers gently run over the flitting wings, careful not to knock his tiny partner off balance. "Before she was taken from us, when she was my partner, do you remember, Nooroo?" The sadness poured from him, seeping into the open room, and stifling his words. The pain, although six years old, had never healed. Finding her miraculous abandoned on the dresser, no sign as to where she had gone, had left him broken, seemingly beyond repair. He had fought to gain the most powerful miraculouses, convinced that with their power he could bring her back, somehow believing that power was what he needed to find her. In the end, he had realized the error of his ways, fighting out of habit and to release his grief unto others.

Nooroo glided forehead, gingerly touching the cheek of the man he once consider a partner. The years had been hard on both of them, Nooroo's heart felt damaged beyond repair; however, together now in the emptiness, Nooroo could feel the change in his friend. "She was brighter than the sun. A laugh in human form, the type of woman who wasn't afraid of her emotions. She brought that out in you at one time." Nooroo remembered her smile, the way she would sing to him and her kwami, treating them as if they were children instead of miraculous beings. From what he had observed in his exposure to Marinette, he assumed that Tikki and maybe Plagg were receiving the same treatment. He had felt envy in the happiness that he could feel radiating from the other kwamis every time they ventured into his space with their humans. There had been a time that he was happy too, and he tried to focus on that now.

Moving to the bed, Gabriel removed his ascot, shoving his hands into his hair causing an amusing dishevelment of the normally perfect locks. Shoulders beginning to shake, the vibration of years of grief now escaping his fragile body through a flood of tears. "I miss her so much, Nooroo," a tiny hand appeared on his shoulder and he continued to let the tears fall, "I thought if I kept Adrien away from people, I could protect him from this pain." The hitch in his throat caused him to pause. "I thought if I could gain the ultimate power of the miraculouses that I could get her back, that the power would be the key to unlocking her disappearance. Or at least I would have enough muscle to manipulate everyone into helping me find her." He was doubled over now, elbows on his knees, hands covering his face. The kwami was perched silently on his shoulder, letting the sorrow pour from the man uninterrupted. "I have been a fool, Nooroo. I can't force her to return, no more than I can protect Adrien forever." Wiping his hands forcefully down his face, Gabriel glanced to his shoulder and the patient eyes that were watching him closely. "I'm sorry."

The words were a whisper, but the dead silence of the room allowed them to carry. Nooroo hugged Gabriel's face, his own tears running down purple cheeks. Hurt had followed them both, leading them down a path of unthinkable means, but he knew that it was about to change. Even if Gabriel hadn't said the words, Nooroo would have felt the apology. It was as strong of a feeling as the impending feeling of goodbye. The realization struck Nooroo in the chest, his tiny kwami body feeling the shake of his despair. "Gabriel?" he asked, hushing directly into the side of the man's face, unable and unwilling to finish the question.

"He is here, you know," Gabriel used his opposite hand to gently cradle the kwami into his lap. A flash of himself at 20, holding Nooroo exactly as he was now, listening to the kwami explain his role, blinked through his mind. Life had been simpler then. He remembered when he had woken to discover that his beloved was gone, and he had placed both of their miraculouses in the hidden safe. It wasn't until he had discovered the book, by chance at an auction, that he had returned to his role as Hawkmoth. Swallowing hard, a different set of images flashed through his mind, ones that it would take him a lifetime to forget.

Nooroo nodded, never averting his gaze. "I felt Wayzz when they arrived. Do you suppose he is here because of the engagement?" A small smile crept onto Nooroo's face. Master Fu was a notorious fan of the Ladybug and Cat Noir romances, and Nooroo couldn't see how he would miss an engagement if he had been given prior warning of its occurrence.

A ragged breath escaped Gabriel as he brought Nooroo to his tear stained cheek. "I can never repay you for all of the good years," swallowing again against the lump in his throat, Gabriel pressed on, "and there will never be enough words to apologize for the dark ones." He kissed his kwami's head, an impulse he hadn't acted on in six years. "It is time for us to say goodbye, my friend. You are meant to be with someone whose heart is pure, who can help you fight for what is good in this world. Maybe, if I am not torn between two lives, between the past and the present, I will find a bit of it for myself again."

Hugged closer to Gabriel's cheek, Nooroo allowed himself to cry freely. It was always his peacock counterpart that had been overly emotional, but the sadness of separation and the relief of leaving this life behind was tearing his heart to pieces. "Hold on to what is good, Gabriel," Nooroo patted the once again wet cheek with his hand. "Adrien, Marinette, they are your family now. Trust them with your heart. Trust them with your story. Let them learn from your mistakes and don't be scared to let them love you as I always have."

Gabriel rose from the edge of the bed, crossing to his suitcase which rested on the luggage table. With a trembling hand, he removed the little black box. He could easily remember the day he had discovered it on his drafting table, the first time he had stumbled over the rooftops of Paris, crashing clumsily into a brilliant blue form. They weren't fated in the same way Cat Noirs and Ladybugs were, but they had fallen in love nonetheless. Unfortunately, their love story didn't end with happily ever after.

Placing the box on the mahogany desk, Gabriel brought Nooroo to face him one last time. "Thank you, for everything," he chocked, the goodbye latching around his vocal cords. "I cannot wait to see what you do in the future."

"Goodbye, Gabriel," Nooroo floated next to the black box, forcing it open himself. "Happiness is waiting for you, as long as you aren't too scared to let it in."

Those were the last words Gabriel ever heard Nooroo speak, as he reached to the collar of his shirt and unpinned the moth brooch. Placing it in the box, his sobs overtook him as the small figure chased the miraculous into the box. Slipping it into his dress jacket for the night, he moved into the bathroom, truly alone for the first time in over thirty years.

When a knock came at his door a mere twenty minutes later, Gabriel answered, dressed and composed for the evening. His green-eyed son, who looked so strikingly like his mother it made Gabriel's heart ache, smiled up at him, fidgeting with nerves. "Ready to go?" Adrien was unaware of the emotional roller coaster that Gabriel had ridden that day, so he had no way to know why his father was hugging him so fiercely. Relieved when the young arms returned the affection with equal force, Gabriel nodded, finally letting go to close the door behind him. Together they entered the elevator headed for the lobby and an evening of happy futures.

**Author's Note:**

> I cried while writing this. I wrote it when someone asked for the scene and then barely made it through. I will always have hope for Gabriel!


End file.
